Dear friends,
my computer was crashed for the past three weeks and I got a new hard drive and I am working on getting all my e-mail addresses back in order. Mostly I am planting peas and lettuce and beets and spinach and don't give the computer much time. My friend Ellie is coming to help me.
So much has happened, I handwrote a newsletter three weeks ago that I never sent and now there is so much new stuff to talk about.
Ace has started working. He is friends with Emlyn next door and the farm and came from Vermont . He is in his twenties, strong, mechanically inclined and curious to learn all that is to know about organic farming.
We spent days fixing the deer fence and gates around the gardens. This needs to happen every spring as more of the 200 10'posts rot at the base and we pound in 8' t-posts next to them and tie them to the old wooden post to hold them up. Every year we have to replace about 20 of them. The gates suffer from frost heave and the latches don't line up or they sag or.... you get the idea.
my computer was crashed for the past three weeks and I got a new hard drive and I am working on getting all my e-mail addresses back in order. Mostly I am planting peas and lettuce and beets and spinach and don't give the computer much time. My friend Ellie is coming to help me.
So much has happened, I handwrote a newsletter three weeks ago that I never sent and now there is so much new stuff to talk about.
Ace has started working. He is friends with Emlyn next door and the farm and came from Vermont . He is in his twenties, strong, mechanically inclined and curious to learn all that is to know about organic farming.
We spent days fixing the deer fence and gates around the gardens. This needs to happen every spring as more of the 200 10'posts rot at the base and we pound in 8' t-posts next to them and tie them to the old wooden post to hold them up. Every year we have to replace about 20 of them. The gates suffer from frost heave and the latches don't line up or they sag or.... you get the idea.
 Ace adjusting the digger |  Digging no sunchokes |
We also borrowed a potato digger to see if it could dig up the sunchokes. We only harvested 1/4 of the two fields because winter came right after Thanksgiving. Although it is fun digging them for a few days it would save so much labor and cold hours digging 16" deep by hand. After running over the bed twice we got 80lbs total and when digging deep; by hand over the same field we got 50lb in 15' (10% of the field). If I had my own potato digger I would try to modify it to go 16" deep. Dreaming....
Note new roll over bar
In March I got all the manure spread that needed to go onto the fields of broccoli, onions and parsnips, to have the required 120 days to harvest. It is always tricky to find the right time, where there is no more snow in which the tractor does slip and the ground still frozen before mud season so the heavy tractor and manure spreader don't sink into the soil and don't make deep ruts. I am glad when that task is accomplished.
 First lettuce, ready to transplant |  Tomatoes, waiting for after the frost this Saturday |
We also rolled the sides of the High -tunnel down and forked the wet beds by hand and I planted first carrots, cilantro an lettuce in it. I call it little Florida on a sunny day when it heats up. The tunnel needs daily rolling up sides if it is sunny to not over heat, twice a week watering and closing up sides and doors in the evening.
Curious Cows
The cows always watch me from their pasture right next to it. I get a lot of mooing comments. Carol has three weeks to go before having a calf and I am enjoying my time of not having to milk until then. Both Carol and Felix wait for brushing time. They are changing hair to summer hair and ticks are itching them. They get so jealous when I am brushing the other one.
Today we planted the first peas! The field has a hard time drying up with all the intermittent rain and we do a lot of hand work to get any grass out. I am ready to eat some fresh peas. Well, we have first nettles and water-weed for fresh greens. I planted peas till 5.30pm and then rushed in to cook dinner for all and had a North Country Grown meeting at 7pm, a bit stressful. Steve and Kira are out of town on a school trip and I can linger late in the Main-house writing this newsletter and finishing up the last few dishes.
Today we planted the first peas! The field has a hard time drying up with all the intermittent rain and we do a lot of hand work to get any grass out. I am ready to eat some fresh peas. Well, we have first nettles and water-weed for fresh greens. I planted peas till 5.30pm and then rushed in to cook dinner for all and had a North Country Grown meeting at 7pm, a bit stressful. Steve and Kira are out of town on a school trip and I can linger late in the Main-house writing this newsletter and finishing up the last few dishes.
Please remember to sign up for your CSA share or let me know if you have other plans. File for the Gardenshare bonus bucks for low income folks is attached. They will pay for 1/2 of your share if you qualify. What a wonderful program!
| 2019_bonus_bucks.pdf |
Peace,
Dulli
Dulli
